The world must know: Have nanobots already taken over half the universe?

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The world must know: Have nanobots already taken over half the universe?

I came to a bloodchilling thought the other day.

Premise 1:
The universe is expanding, but the expansion is being counteracted by some force. Also, the movement of galaxies cannot be explained by what we see. Therefore, scientists have concluded that "dark matter" - matter which we cannot see because it does not radiate light - populates a great part of the universe.

Planets are dark matter. Basically, anything that is not a star or excited gas is dark matter.

Premise 2:
Nanobots are hypothetical robots that exist at the nanolevel (around a billionth of a meter). Scientists and science fiction writers hope that in the future, they will be capable of self replication. In other words, we hope one day they will be able to tear apart molecules, and create new nanobots with the atoms they find. If a nanobot is capable of replication, and it loses its programming that has it stop at some point, it will assimilate the whole world at an exponential rate. I don't know the raw math on this, but I'm pretty sure a runaway nanobot would convert the whole world in a little under a day. This has led some to describe the "grey goo" hypothesis of armageddon.

You can see this at work in the GI Joe movie, and the new "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Terrible movies, but they give a good illustration.

This only makes sense. It would be the most succesful virus in human history. Virii infect cells, rip them apart (the RNA and DNA at least), and then use the cells to make more copies of the virus.

It's just that virii have limitations. A nanobot would not. Evolutionarily, it would be the most succesful creature (if it be alive) ever.

Premise 3:
The universe is old. We cannot be the first civilization, and we cannot be the most advanced. If a civilization was more advanced, it is quite likely it had invented nanobots. It is also quite likely that the civilization and its planet were destroyed by the nanobots - turned into gray goo.

Premise 4:
If nanobots were to go crazy, they could convert a solar system in a matter of a thousand years (comets, meteors, solar winds, and other intersolar actors would be responsible.) But it would have to wait for the solar system to come into contact with another solar system to spread outside. However, this will inevitably happen.

If all of these premises are true (and that is not so hard to believe), then this "dark matter" could be parts of the universe that have already been converted to nanobots. We should be looking for whatever electomagnetic signature they would put off. We need to investigate this. It is possible that we are heading into a part of our galaxy that has been converted. We must know.

Does this explain all dark matter? No. There is too much uniformity to believe that this has happened in every galaxy - even immature ones. But this could explain a lot of the dark matter, particularly in mature stable galaxies which would give rise to intelligent life.

This conclusion simply, logically follows.

Thoughts, comments, and of course criticisms are welcome. I just need to spread this message as far as it will go.

If nanobots can be created, and if they do lead to a grey goo, we should and must locate them.

it was an interesting thought until robo came along and blew it out of the sky with a rather excellent point. Anyway, I would like to think that the limits of human imagaination are not the limits of technology that could ever be created.

Another point that I could find a gap in would be the travelling between solar systems or between galaxies... there's not much for the nanobots to chow down on in such a vast amount of space....

[QUOTE=halB]m pretty sure a runaway nanobot would convert the whole world in a little under a day. [QUOTE]

that would depend on how fast it converts its surroundings into a full copy. this is a complex being and the sheer energy required to break or create the atomic bonds is huge. why do you think we don't have cars that run on water? it takes more energy to break the bonds between 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen than is created from the break. this is 2 bonds, how is one little thing going to create the energy to reorder all these atomic structures into a string of RNA to create this new nanobot? all the time cells in our own bodies break down and die. how is a new one created? from the food we eat and digest.

now the nanobot is no longer just creating copies but it is also creating a waste, atomic elements it cannot use. there will come a point when there is no longer any substance to create a new copy and once again, they will probably breakdown before there is a new food source.

as the law of energy states, energy cannot be created or destroyed. there HAS to be a fuel source for the creation of the new nanobot and eventually there will no-longer be sufficient power to create any more bots. then then breakdown and crisis over.

it looks like to me you just really want this to happen. like i do with zombies. god it would be fun, but sadly, not possible.

As stated earlier, rocky planets such as ours cannot be dark matter because they reflect light, hence why we can see them. But let's assume your hypothesis is correct; that all matter which does not give off energy in the form of its own light must be dark matter. Have you ever been to Hawaii? Neither have I. But I've seen pictures. My favorite images of the place include night shots of bright orange molten lava spewing out of the maw of Mount Kilimanjaro and running down the side of the shield volcano in great rivers of glowing liquid rock. Sadly though, the lava eventually loses its beauty and turns black as it cools and solidifies.

Through this observation, it is clear that the same matter which once emitted its own light no longer does so. How could this be possible given your hypothosis? Surely matter cannot switch back and forth into dark matter simply through differences in temperature. And if it could, the whole basis and concept of "dark matter" loses its entire meaning.

I also offer my 2 cents regarding interplanetary travel of nanobots.

I think these little guys would find it quite challenging to planet-hop by any means. As stated before, nanobots are most likely highly susceptible to death by heat, especially given their size. It wouldn't take much to cook something so small and fragile, regardless of what it is made out of. Any astroid or comet impact strong enough to hurl chunks of an alien nanobot world deep into space would create temperatures greater than the surface of our sun. But if they did survive blast-off, then begins the long journey where they'd be subjected to billions, if not trillions, of years of solar radiation. And assuming they survived even that, AND managed to avoid being drawn into the mass of a star, the entry into a host-planet's atmosphere, such as ours, would be quite toasty, as well.